24 August 2012

Back in the
late nineties and the early part of this century, Sylvester Stallone was the
butt of a lot of jokes in the movie industry.He had amassed the most Razzie awards (30), collecting them for acting,
directing, writing, worst decade, and lifetime achievement to name a few.The later Rambo
and Rocky sequels contributed to a
lot of that.Ironically, Rocky Balboa and Rambo, the last in their respective franchises, revitalizedhis career.So, Stallone wrote and directed The
Expendables back in 2010(for which he received his latest Razzie
nomination), where he gathered together more testosterone than any other
film.He put together the Ocean’s Eleven equivalent of action
heroes.The Expendables was a box office success despite taking a critical
lashing and broke $100 million domestically.The only question was, who would be in the inevitable sequel?

The Expendables 2 quickly received the
go ahead, and the search was on for actors to join the film.To me, the two biggest problems in the
original film were the direction and the choppy, uneven storytelling. Stallone
was just too close and passionate about the film to direct it the way it needed
to be.The good dialog flowed into the
half-hearted action became distraction.Thankfully, in The Expendables 2,
Simon West replaced Stallone behind the camera.This seemed to kill both birds with one stone.Unfortunately, The Expendables 2 had to create its own set of problems.

The Expendables 2 opens on the mercenary
team infiltrating a bad-guy compound for an extraction.All the originals are back (except for Mickey
Rourke’s Tool): Toll Road
(Randy Coture), Hale Caesar (Terry Crews), Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), Yin
Yang (Jet Li), Gunnar Jensen (Dolph Lundgren), and team leader Barney Ross
(Stallone).As it turns out, they also
save the hide of Trench (Arnold Schwarzenegger). Trench was apparently on the
same mission, but got caught in the process.During the extraction, we get our first glimpse of new team member Billy
the Kid (Liam Hemsworth), a young ex-Army sniper.

Back in the
states, the Expendables are having a drink at a bar, and we see that Christmas
is engaged to Lacy (Charisma Carpenter) from the original film.Billy asks to talk with Barney outside.Billy informs Barney that he will be leaving
the team at the end of the month. He says that the pay and team are good, but
the lifestyle is just not for him.Barney then goes back to his plane hangar, and is met by Church (Bruce
Willis) from the first film.

Church tells
Barney that his band of misfits are being sent to recover a package from a
wrecked plane, and that once it is returned to Church, Barney is off the hook
and out of debt to him.The other catch
is, Church is putting his own member, Maggie (Nan Yu), on the team.So, the team sets out to retrieve this
mysterious package from the wreckage.

Upon
arriving and retrieving the package, Vilain (Jean Claude Van Damme) and his
team of cronies intercepts the Expendables, and steals the package.Another significant event happens (no
spoilers here) and the Expendables are left trying to track down Vilain for
vengeance and they discover that the package contains a blueprint of a mine
where the Russians stored five tons of weapons-grade plutonium at the end of
the Cold War.The final showdown between
the Expendables and Vilain’s crew happens at an airport.Joining the fight for the good guys was
Church, Trench, and Booker (Chuck Norris).

So, here is
what is wrong this go around.The dialog
and acting are so tongue-in-cheek that it actually made me groan.When Chuck Norris first appeared on screen,
he tells a Chuck Norris fact.It
hurt.The amount of self-awareness of
the actors and their previous characters just gets old.They reference Lone Wolf McQuade, Die Hard, Terminator, Rambo and Dolph Lundgren’s
actual biography.There is a long dialog
about how Gunnar was a Fullbright scholar, a Chemical Engineer, and went to
MIT.That is really my only complaint.In addition, Chuck Norris does no
hand-to-hand combat.That is a real
shame.

West’s
direction helped the movie flow well through its 103 minute running time.He is no stranger to action.He directed Con-Air, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and The Mechanic.The story
feels like a script that was written back in the late eighties and was dusted
off and revamped for this exact group of actors.

The Expendables 2 did not have as big an
opening as its predecessor, but it might have better legs.There is no real big movie coming out in the
near future to threaten it.The Expendables2 is a better made film than The
Expendables.I just hope that it
makes $100 million since the rumor mill is already turning as to who will be
joining the cast for The Expendables 3.Not to mention, both Stallone and
Schwarzenegger have a new action films coming out this winter, Bullet to the Head and The Last Stand respectively.Then, they are in a film together sometime
next year, The Tomb.If The Expendables 2 does not perform well,
it could spell the end of the nostalgia that got these three films greenlit.

If you are a
fan of the original, then you will not be disappointed with its sequel.It is very bloody, action-packed, and
funny.I highly recommend seeing The Expendables 2 if you have already
seen The Dark Knight Rises, and The Bored Legacy.

09 August 2012

I decided to once again re-watch all
the movies in a franchise prior to the newest release.This weekend will welcome the latest in the
Bourne franchise that exploded on the scene back in 2002.So, I went over to my shelf and dusted off The Bourne Trilogy on Blu-Ray that I
purchased a few years ago, and never watched (I use my money wisely).As a quick warning, the following article
does have some spoilers, as if you haven’t seen the trilogy.

The Bourne Identity
opened back in June 2002 to an impressive $21 million second place finish.It went on to make over $121 million on its
$60 million budget.I remember seeing
this movie in theaters back in Indianapolis
after my shift at the local movie house.What a badass film!That is all I
really remembered.I bought the Extended
Edition DVD when it came out in 2004, watched it that night, and never
again.So, when I sat down this past
weekend, it had been eight years since I have seen The Bourne Identity.

The Bourne Identity opens
on a fishing boat in a storm fishing a body out of the water.The crew medic examines the nearly lifeless
body, and removes the two bullets from his back and a mysterious laser pointer
containing a back account number from his hip.The mysterious man (Matt Damon) awakens with no knowledge of who he is,
or what he was doing out in the middle of the ocean.

Once on land, he sleeps on a park bench
and gets confronted by some police officers.Out of nowhere, he takes them down with ease.The next morning he makes his way to the bank
and gets a safe deposit box.He
discovers his name is Jason Bourne, and he lives in Paris.Next, he makes his way to the US Embassy with his US passport,
one of the many passprts he found in his lockbox.There, he is confronted by more officers and military
personnel.Once again, Bourne dispatches
of them and eludes them with ease.As
part of his escape, he pays Marie (Franka Potente) to drive him to Paris.She is quickly added to the ensuing manhunt
as his accomplice.

Meanwhile back in the US, the
government is working hard on damage control.Apparently, there was a black ops mission to assassinate Wombosi
(Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), an extremist.The mission was a failure, and now Wombosi is threatening to name names
within the US
government about something that no one wants to be made public, unless he is
given the would-be assassin.Of course,
the assassin was Bourne.This leaves
Conklin (Chris Cooper), the head of a black ops group called Treadstone, to
activate all his other operatives to try and locate and contain or kill Jason
Bourne.This also makes Ward Abbott
(Brian Cox) uneasy, as he has some stake in Treadstone, too, and does not want
Wombosi’s information to go public.

This puts three operatives on the trail
of Bourne, who is still trying to figure out who he is.As very few pieces come together for Bourne,
he is forced to confront the other operatives.One of which is played by Clive Owen, who informs him of Treadstone, and
gives Bourne enough knowledge about it to be dangerous.Bourne sends Marie on her way for her own
good, and sets out to end this with Treadstone.

As I mentioned above, it had been eight
years since I last watched The Bourne
Identity.I forgot just how deep and
layered the plot is.All I really
remembered was the action scenes.Doug
Liman, who had only directed Swingers
and Go, put together a helluva
film.He managed to balance great
character development and dialog scenes with down to Earth action.John Powell’s score helped keep the movie
moving at the appropriate pace.It fit
the action as well as the non-action scenes.The script, written by Tony Gilroy, is based on the first of three books
by Robert Ludlum about his memory challenged assassin.I have not read the books, though I have them
and have tried.Ludlum’s writing is just
plain boring to me.I cannot read his
style or Tom Clancy or John Grisham.I
don’t know why.I love the movies based
on their literary works.I just cannot
read the books.After watching The Bourne Identity again, I might give
the book another try.

The cast of this film amazed me,
too.There are just so many actors who
have gone on to become household names and faces since this movie came
out.Clive Owen was in the BMW series Driver, and was in the Robert Altman Oscar
contender GosfordPark, but he was not known to US
audiences.Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje was
great as the political extremist, and went on to be Mr. Eko in Lost.Probably my favorite find was Walton Goggins.He played a member of Conklin’s research team.He is better known as Shane from The Shield and Boyd Crowder from Justified.Julia Stiles plays Nicolette, a member of
Treadstone tasked with keeping tabs on the operatives.Her character becomes more important in the
later films.If you are a fan of foreign
films, you might even recognize Franka Potente as she is Lola, from Tywer’s Run Lola Run.On top of all of these “no-name” actors, you
have Academy Award winner Chris Cooper (Adaptation),
Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting) and
Emmy winner Brian Cox (Nuremberg).That is a stacked cast set for success.

I like The Bourne Identity already, but after a long hiatus, I know love
it. There was so much about it that I forgot, or just did not catch the last
time I watched it.At the conclusion of
the film, Liman and Gilroy
wrapped the movie up nicely in the chance that this was the only film they
would be able to make.Damon was no
action star back in 2002, not to mention an actor capable of headlining a
franchise.It might have been a big risk
in 2002, but now it would be a no-brainer.Much of his success is due to this film.

As the ending credits rolled for The Bourne Identity, I was faced with a
tough decision: Do I risk waking The Kid, who had been sleeping on me for the
past hour, to change out the disc?Or, do
I let him sleep, and just watch what is on television?I took the risk.I paid the price.The Kid was not happy with me moving him, and
after twenty minutes, I finally got back to the Bourne franchise, and had a
sleeping baby.

I did not see The Bourne Supremacy in theaters.It opened at the end of the summer in 2004.I just finished interning in Chicago, and was moving back to college as
this film opened to a massive $52 million first place finish and was on its way
to $176 million on a $75 million budget.So, I first viewed the movie when it hit DVD.I rushed out and bought it, watched it once
in college while doing something else, and quickly forgot about most of
it.All I remembered was some car chase
and Marie getting killed at the beginning.I also remember not liking it much.I sat down, hit play, and gave The
Bourne Supremacy another chance.

The film opens two years after the
events of the first film.Pam Landy
(Joan Allen) is running a CIA operation in Russia to obtain some files about
corruption (are there any other kind?).As the transfer is about to go down, the power and security goes down, a
mysterious figure enters and kills both the seller and the buyer.This leaves Landy trying to figure out what
just happened to her op.A thumbprint
left at the scene matches that of Treadstone operative Jason Bourne.She gets the necessary clearance, and obtains
the files on Treadstone.As she starts
to dig into it, she comes across Ward Abbott’s name and interviews him.Abbott (Cox) is not very forthcoming with
information, and is quickly dragged into the case.

Meanwhile, Bourne (Damon) wakes from a
nightmare/memory.He is living with
Marie (Potente) in India.They have made a life for themselves free of
the government per Bourne’s request at the end of the first film.The same mysterious man, Kirill (Karl Urban)
comes to India,
locates Bourne, and tries to kill him.Of course he fails, but believes he has succeeded.All he really did, however, was kill Marie
and piss off Jason Bourne.

Bourne then starts to look into why he
was targeted, and discovers that yet another manhunt is on, and he is once
again the target.He learns that he is
wanted for the hijacking of the money and the files, and now must prove he had
nothing to do with it while being chased.To make matters worse, word gets back to Kirill that he is not dead, and
now Bourne must evade both sides.

Bourne makes contact with Landy, and
demands a meeting with Nicolette (Stiles).Bourne confronts her about a mission he was on in Russia.She tells him he was never in Russia, but he
knows otherwise.As he pieces it
together, Bourne discovers that his first mission was off-the-books.He was used by Conklin and Abbott as a
private hit man to take out a Russian bureaucrat.Bourne puts together that the head of the
corruption is none other than Abbott.He
leaks this information to Landy, leaving Bourne to deal with Kirill.This showdown occurs by the way of
ridiculously awesome car chase.Now,
with his name clear, Bourne dares to come stateside and contact Landy.She informs him of his real name, David Webb,
and offers to help him.This is where we
fade to black.

Again, the depth and layers in the
script by Tony Gilroy keep coming and keep me intrigued.I am not sure what I watched the first time,
but I cannot believe that I did not love The
Bourne Supremacy.I might go as far
even to say that this was better than The
Bourne Identity.The only real
change from Identity to Supremacy comes by way of the director.Paul Greengrass replaces Doug Liman, but
Liman sticks around as a producer.This
is the first of three collaborations between Greengrass and Damon.Both return for the three-quel and then again
for Green Zone.Anyway, Greengrass had not really directed
anything of note before getting this job.He brought a whole new feel to the action by way of fast, frantic, cuts
that make you feel like you are in the middle of it.Unfortunately, this also hinders your ability
to see what is going on.Greengrass uses
this style to death in Green Zone.

With the loss of Chris Cooper from the
first film, it is refreshing to see Academy Award nominee Joan Allen step
in.She takes the reigns and leads the
charge in a convincing manner.Brian Cox
keeps up his great acting, until his untimely ending.Damon does a fantastic job playing the
tortured, memory deprived Treadstone operative.Julia Stiles sees her role increase, and she takes the opportunity to
show her acting chops.The interesting
addition this time around is Karl Urban as Kirill.Kirill does not have a lot of dialog, but
Urban says a lot with his actions.He
just came off the Lord of the Rings
trilogy, stepped into this role, and has gone on to other action movies; some
better than others.So, that is two Bourne films down, and one to go.

It took a few days until I found the
time to finish the trilogy, but the important thing is: I found the time.I originally saw The Bourne Ultimatum during its massive $69 million opening
weekend.It went on to gross a franchise
high $227 million.I remember the
shaky-cam filming more than anything.I
remember thinking, thank goodness The Wife did not accompany me to this, she
would be sicker than sick.I also
remembered a lot of action, and the ending.I am not sure why these movies did not leave a bigger impression on me,
but I am sure after watching all three of the Matt Damon Bourne films in such a short time period, and enjoying them, they
will stick with me better.

The Bourne Ultimatum opens
right after the Kirill action scene of The
Bourne Supremacy.The story fills
the gap, which you don’t know is there, from the car chase to Bourne calling
Landy at the end of Supremacy.Bourne is bleeding, finds a pharmacy,
administers his own first aid, takes out a few Russian cops, and begins his
journey to the States.

In the meantime, over in Italy, Simon
Ross (Paddy Considine), a reporter, is meeting with CIA whistleblower Neal
Daniels (Colin Stinton).Ross has been
trying to piece together the story of Bourne.Daniels informs him of a top secret CIA program codenamed
Blackbriar.So, being the typical
reporter, Ross blurts the codename on his cell phone, and immediately gets
flagged by CIA Agent Noah Vosen (David Strathairn) and his team.Vosen is part of the cover-up going on with
Abbott.The head of the CIA Ezra Kramer
(Scott Glenn) is in on it, too.Landy
(Allen) gets involved to help track Bourne.

Bourne makes his way to England to meet
with Ross and find out what he knows and who his source is.This meeting does not go well, as Vosen has
sent a Blackbriar operative Paz (Edgar Ramirez) to kill both Bourne and
Ross.After Paz takes out Ross, this
leaves both the CIA and Bourne on the hunt for Daniels.Vosen sends another Blackbriar operative Desh
(Joey Ansah).Along the way, Bourne runs
across Nicky Parsons (Stiles), and they go after Daniels.Desh is then sent orders to kill Nicky and
Bourne after dispatching of Daniels.He
bats one for three.The hunter/hunted
scene between Nicky, Desh and Bourne seems to go on forever before Bourne
finally puts an end to Desh.Now, with
Daniels and Desh dead, Bourne tells Nicky that she must lie low and stay on the
run.

So, Bourne finally makes it back
stateside to find out who he is, what happened to him, and to take his life
back.This is when Landy receives the
call from the end of the second film.This is 75 minutes into the 115 minute running time.The last forty minutes deals with Vosen still
trying to locate, capture and kill Bourne while keeping Landy from finding out
how dirty he is.In the end, Bourne
confronts Dr. Albert Hirsch (Albert Finney), the man responsible for turning
him into Jason Bourne.After a long,
semi-painful scene of dialog that explains everything, Bourne is forced to
escape one more time.He is shot as he
jumps into a river, and believed to be dead.But we all know better.

Again, a solid script by Tony Gilroy
keeps this entry moving forward.Sadly
though, The Bourne Ultimatum is
unwatchable by anyone who gets motion sick while watching movies due to the
excessive shaky cam shots by director Paul Greengrass.The Wife sat down during the last fifteen
minutes and had to vacate the couch in less than five.

Once again, the franchise is forced to
replace a great actor, Brian Cox.How do
they do that?They get Academy Award
nominee David Strathairn.Strathairn
does a great job standing toe-to-toe with Joan Allen.I am only saddened that Scott Glenn is under
utilized as the director of the CIA.Julia
Stiles sees her role increase yet again, and she takes advantage of it.Matt Damon takes his character into deeper
and darker places yet again.The rest of
the cast puts in a solid job for what many of them considered the final chapter
in the Bourne franchise.But, we all know that if that were the case,
or I would not be writing this article.

While I enjoyed The Bourne Ultimatum, I do not think it is as strong as the first
two.It relies heavily on long action
scenes to carry it to its conclusion.The
story does what it has to in order to wrap up the story of Jason Bourne.The ending is both final and yet open. I
prefer this method to the closed, no more Jason Bourne movies, this is it type
ending; and the cheesy, is this it, we could make more style.

I am glad that I took the time revisit
this franchise, as it has been better than I remembered.Individually, each film has its strengths and
weaknesses.As a whole, the franchise is
stronger than most trilogies.A lot of
times, by the time the third movie rolls around, everything is tired and
boring.The last entry becomes about
making money.That is not the case
here.There is a definitive ending that
is being aimed at, and it is achieved.Hopefully, I will not wait another eight years before watching them
again.

I look forward into seeing the fourth
entry, The Bourne Legacy, but I think it will be hard to capture the magic of
the original.Come back Monday to find
out how it fares…

Who is the Hairy Man?

I recently got a position with insideSTL.com as a movie critic. I will be posting on there once a week and here the rest of the time. I plan to post links between the sites to increase cross traffic. That means I should post 1 new review a week, at least!